Key Takeaways
- AI-powered search engines “understand” context and generate answers based on nuanced queries, providing faster and more accurate results than Google.
- AI search engines like Perplexity, Exa, and You AI use generative AI to browse the internet, provide references, and adapt to your preferences.
- Privacy-conscious AI search engines like Andi aim to combat spam and misinformation while providing accurate, concise results.
AI-powered search is going to be the next big step in how we search online. I find it faster and easier than Google results, and I think you will too. Here are some AI search engines that I use:
Why you should use AI search instead of Google
Imagine you're tasked with devising a way to search the Internet. There are billions of web pages scattered across the web, and you want to surface only those that are relevant to the query at hand. How would you do it?
How does Google work?
Well, Google deploys bots called crawlers or spiders that browse billions of web pages. Google then analyzes what the crawlers scan and creates an index from it. Think of a table of contents at the beginning of a book, except the whole internet. When you enter a query, Google compares it to its vast index and shows you the most relevant results – the famous 10 blue links.
This is an oversimplification, but it's essentially how we've been searching the web since the first computer went online: you type a literal (and mostly simple) keyword or phrase into Google, and it returns pages that contain that keyword or phrase.
The Need for AI in Search
Google works very well until you search for something more complicated – a long query that requires follow-up, perhaps. But for searches that are nuanced and highly context-dependent, it gets bogged down because basic keyword sorting isn't available. Such searches don't return highly relevant matches. You end up reading through all 12 tabs and notes and putting together your own answer.
This is where AI comes in. Generative AI, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, are already pretty good at picking up on the nuances, feeling, and context of a conversation. They can also browse the internet just like humans do, but much faster. Finally, AI can craft quick, easily understandable answers based on what they find. Combine these three and you have the recipe for an AI-powered search engine.
Let's do a little test
Here's what I want to say.
I asked the AI-powered search engine Perplexity, “What are the best vacation spots in Europe for families?” and it returned with a list.
I selected “Tuscany” from the list and asked, “What are the best places to visit in Tuscany for couples with babies?”, which brought up another list. Each entry on the list comes with a helpful description along with the source page where the engine found it.
I then asked, “Do you know any good hotels for a long holiday on a budget?” and it remembered the context of our conversation (I didn't have to repeat “couple” or “baby”) and showed me 10 accommodation options in Tuscany that matched my preferences.
Tuscany didn't have what I was looking for, but I didn't want to start the search from scratch again, so I let an AI search engine tell me the best vacation spots in Spain I wanted to visit.
It answered my questions with questions to help me narrow down the results. I chose Beach, and it added that to my list of other preferences. Like Google, it also has a helpful related section.
The whole search process took about a minute. I also Googled “affordable long stay vacation spots in Europe for couples with babies.” As expected, I didn't get a single one-to-one match. I only got a guide on how to travel with a toddler and a few European vacation spots. You can imagine how time consuming it would be to browse all these sites and manually compile the results.
That's the power of generative AI in search, which is why Google and Bing are integrating AI concepts into their search engines, but you don't have to limit yourself to a hybrid search experience with these engines.
To get started with AI-powered searching, we've rounded up the best AI search engines worth trying below.
Like other large-scale language models, these AI search engines are also prone to hallucinating and fabricating information with complete confidence. We recommend that you do not use these bots for medical, financial, or legal advice. Always fact-check what the AI tells you when researching important information. Privacy is also a concern as these bots may use your information for training purposes. Never share sensitive personal information such as bank details or passwords.
Confused AI
Perplexity is the most popular AI-powered search engine today. It is built on ChatGPT, but uses internet sources to provide answers. Like ChatGPT, talking to Perplexity feels like talking to a truly all-knowing assistant: it understands contextual cues, remembers them, and adapts to my preferences as the conversation progresses.
I used Perplexity in the demonstration above. The difference with ChatGPT is that it browses the web and provides references for every question. This is also why Perplexity AI always provides up-to-date results (ChatGPT's knowledge is off by a year or two). Perplexity doesn't hallucinate as much. Results are usually more accurate and precise. It's not perfect because it just makes up quotes, or sometimes it fails to cite a claim.
The free version of Perplexity has a capped quota that refreshes every 4 hours. Perplexity also has a paid version.
Exa
Exa is another generative AI-based search engine. It understands what the user is looking for and based on that, it shows relevant results. However, this search engine works with link embedding. Link embedding is the way users describe links online. For example, “Here are the best vacation spots in Europe” and a link is attached to it. This search engine scans the text in the query and predicts the links that are related to it. Based on this prediction, it shows a list of links.
But unlike Google's 10 blue links, Exa links don't rely on keywords. They're based on prompts. Exa prompt engineering requires a bit of training to master (your query needs to be phrased like an answer to get quality results). But you can avoid that hassle by turning on “improved prompts.” Exa will automatically build a prompt from your query and display search results based on that.
I also like Exa's filters (much better than Google's in my opinion). You can filter by news, newspapers, PDFs, blogs, tweets, personal sites, and more. Just type in what you want to filter and you have all of Google's filters and more. You can also paste links to find similar filters.
You are an AI
You AI is similar in design and functionality to Perplexity, but can work with many other LLMs besides ChatGPT. Choose from Gemini, Llama, Claude, Command R, Dolphin, and Databricks.
It also has a very beautiful interface and the formatting of answers is very good: you can upload different types of files and use voice commands. Like Perplexity, all answers are accompanied by sources. In addition, it has a handy “I want to ask you a question” section.
Andy AI
Andi Search is a privacy-conscious AI search assistant that is completely free and designed to provide factual, accurate and precise results powered by generative AI.
Andi's search results were quite different from what I found on Google or Bing. If you hate seeing the same 12 sites every time you search, you'll find fresh and underrated gems here. If you're in a hurry, you don't need to read the whole webpage – just click and Andi will summarize it for you.
It doesn't try to be as feature-rich as other engines on this list. It just wants to do one thing well: fight spam and misinformation created by AI chatbots. Andi also respects user privacy and doesn't store user data or track users.
Andi is still in development so it may be a little slower than the others.
Give these AI search engines a try and save yourself the trouble of scrolling through irrelevant Google search pages.
